Writer’s block happens to everyone at one time or another. Our brain freezes. It constantly drifts off topic or remains blank. It can last a long period of time or just a couple of hours. Either way, it is frustrating and cuts down on your productivity.

What causes writer’s block is varied. Discomfort and/or clutter in your work area can be distracting and push your mind off topic. Sickness and worry are also major writing distractions. Maybe you have little interest in the topic of your writing and simply cannot get into it. Whatever the reason, the worst thing you can do is dwell on it.

Focusing all your attention on your writer’s block will not make it go away. In fact, it almost seems like “if you think about it, it will come”. The more you dwell on it the stronger the block becomes. Sometimes I can easily get past it by taking my mind off the topic and doodling. Like when I am stuck trying to come up with an angle for a certain piece I let my mind drift just like it wants to. Then I start doodling about nothing. Little flowers, sunsets, stars, the alphabet… anything that is easy for me to scribble down. From there I scratch down words related to my topic and before I know it I have been brainstorming and suddenly have an angle for my story. *I think the key for me here is the doodling first because it gets my mind off the fact that I am stuck before putting my brain back in the position to “think.”

What else can you do if you find yourself the victim of blocked creativity?

· Clean up your workspace. It is okay to have stuff on your desk to enjoy and even inspire you. But clutter is distracting without you even realizing it. An tidy and open area allows the energy and ideas to flow.

· Make your work area comfy. Now I am not saying to run out and buy the latest trendiest office chair, but you should be able to sit comfortably for a period of time without getting sore or cramped. Have enough free desk space to spread out your notes and materials. The temperature should be comfortable, and your surroundings should be quiet.

· Take frequent stretch breaks. No matter how comfy your work spot, staying in one position will lead to discomfort which is a distraction which we know hinders creativity. Many times when I am stuck on an idea I get up and take a walk. The stretching gets my body flowing and a simple jaunt to the kitchen for a glass of water has my brain back in business by the time I get back to my chair.

· Avoid burnout by making your OWN distractions. A long, involved article, especially one of little interest to you, can wipe you out. Both your energy and creativity will leave the building. When this happens, don’t force yourself to get to work on the next assignment. Distract yourself from your exhaustion. Read some gossip blogs, play some internet games, check out your Facebook. IT IS OKAY! You wouldn’t let a boss work you to death without breaks would you? So why do it to yourself? The refreshed brain power you get from it will get you through your deadlines quicker than if you forced yourself to stay on task and struggle. Just make sure you don’t get lost in your distractions. Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes so that you don’t accidentally Twitter your morning away.

· Don’t strive for perfection. This is a biggie for me! I love words and often get stuck in a sentence because I can’t come up with the exact word I want. The magic word! The word that pops and makes it all come together! I love that word but it sometimes plays hide and seek in my brain and I go crazy trying to find it. I have taught myself to just put any old hum drum word in so that I don’t waste any more time and that pesky magic word always shows itself when it realizes I am no longer playing the game.

If none of these tips for writer’s block helps you, the best thing to do is give yourself permission to stop working. Maybe for the day, maybe just for the morning, whatever is appropriate for you. Of course you don’t want to lose productivity, but how productive is it really to sit and stare at a blank screen while all around you are things going undone? Sometimes that permission alone is all that is needed to lift your creative block.

Author Info: Cin Langston www.her-family-blog.com

Like many of you I had heard of blogging but I didn’t really “get it” you know? I have always liked writing, enjoyed passing time with my computer, and was an early passenger on the internet express, so the idea of writing stuff and putting it out there to an audience was intriguing and appealing to me. However, the blogosphere was such a mystery and I simply didn’t give it much thought.

What I DID think about was how to make a little extra money using the internet. This too was a mystery, still is to a degree really, but I felt more equipped to research it. I dabbled in all sorts of things like social sites and surveys that paid mere cents. It was discouraging but luckily before I threw in the towel I stumbled upon freelance writing. The pay for me was pretty low because I was inexperienced and had no resume but I started to feel like there was more to come and perhaps each job would lead to something better.

I did eventually start making better pay for my assignments which was fantastic. I also met a few really cool people along the way who shared job leads with me. One fellow writer introduced me to a new website that was looking for bloggers. I was thrilled. And hooked.

I learned the ins and outs under the wing of the website’s creator and have been writing and having a ball ever since. Some gigs pay better than others and some don’t pay anything at all, but every job makes me a better writer, improves my resume, and leads to the next great assignment, usually better than the one before. I may not have set out to live and love blogging, but I cannot now imagine going a day without it. With some guidance and instruction, you can easily fall in love with blogging and put it to work for you, too.

Do you like writing or have you ever thought about blogging? What do you think has held you back from giving it a try?

Author Info: Cin Langston www.her-family-blog.com

A video for people who wonder why blogs are such a big deal. This video comes in an unbranded “presentation quality” version that can be licensed for use in the workplace.

How to Install WordPress 2.7 through Cpanel

Blogger Forums – A Great Place To Advertise Your Blog:  No matter what type of blog that you have, one of the best places that you can advertise your blog is to join a blogger forum. After all, everyone who posts there has a blog and thats the main subject.  It’s a great place to meet other bloggers and to advertise your blog.  There are quite a few blogger forums that you can sign up for on the Internet. One is known as Bloggeries, where you can show off your blog, get your blog reviewed or review other blogs, and find lots of tools that you can use for your own blog.  Another good place to go is to Blog Forum. Blog Forum, like Bloggeries, has spots for you to market and show off your blog, Blogger forums are a great place to advertise because everyone in them are of the same mind and want to make certain that their blogs get noticed and read.  If you use your blog to advertise something that you are selling, or you want to get a lot of traffic to your blog in order to make money, you want to go someplace where it can get exposure.  When you advertise on a blog forum, you know that you are placing your advertisement in a place where blogging is something that people enjoy.  Just remember when you are posting to a forum to read the rules and abide by them. That way you’ll get your blog noticed and you will know that you are doing the

Blogging Directories – Great Advertising Venues:  If you want to have more people visit your blog, there are plenty of blog directories on the Internet that you can submit your blog to so that people will come and visit it. Most blog directories are listed by the topics that the blogs that are submited cover. Blog Catalog is a free blog directory that offers categories such as career and jobs, writing, Iraq, and many others. It has features such as featured blogs and other things to offer those who submit their blogs there.  Another great place to add your blog is blog-drectory.org. Not only do they have an an extensive list of categories with sub categories, you can get your blog reviewed. For the most popular blogs, it shows the amount of hits that blogs have and if they have any reviews. As well as listing by category, the blogs are also listed by location.  There are other blog directories on the Internet – these are only a couple of them. But blog directories are a great place to advertise your blog and to make
new friends. You never know what you will find when you browsing through the directory, and you may just find out information that you never knew. Some of the blog directories offer chat features as well, so that you can meet other people easily.  As you can see, blog directories are a great place to get your blog noticed and bring people to read your blog and look at your pictures.

Blogging Traffic – Give And Take:  Blogging traffic is a give and take relationship. Sometimes one of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is by visiting someone else ’s blog.  Go to their blog and read one of their entries, or read a few of them. Chances are that you are going to find something that you have in common. When you find something that you find truly
interesting on a blog, leave a comment so that they know that you were there.  One of the best known blogs available is LiveJournal.  A great feature of LiveJournal is that you can search
for interests on their site and it will come up with results of those who have that interest.  Are you interested in horseback riding You can see what other bloggers are interested in horseback riding as well.  When you are commenting on someone’s post, you want to make sure that you don’t leave generic comment. If you like the post, say something about what you read in the post.  After you have commented on the person’s post, then you can say something like, ‘I really like horseback riding too. I had a similar experience to yours.’ and
then use it to link back to your journal.  But be sure that you sound sincere when you are
commenting, and don’t make them feel like you’re just fishing for traffic.  If someone thinks that you are using their blog to get more traffic to yours, they won’t visit your site and your efforts will be wasted.

Join A Community To Advertise Your Blog:  Something that you will find, especially if you join something like LiveJournal or GreatestJournal, is that users just like you have created communities for people with common interests.  There are communities for just about any subject, and if you find that there isn’t a community for the subject you can create one. This is a great place to advertise your blog.  The nice thing about communities is that there isn’t
any limit as to how many communities that you can join.  For example, say that you love blogging about books, horseback riding, and skiing in Tahoe. All you have to do is look through the communities for ones that have those interests and join them.  As long as you post something related to the topic to the chosen community, people will see you and perhaps
they will check out your personal blog.  Something to remember is that you don’t want to write
a post tht is one sentence long in order to get people to go to your blog. They will want to know that what you write is interesting and is something worth reading.  Joining communities can be a great way to advertise your blog and drive traffic to it. If you are referring to something that you posted about on your blog, you can use a link back to your entry in your post.  As with posting comments on someone else’s blog, you don’t want people to think that you joined a community simply to get traffic to your blog. Otherwise, people won’t visit your blog and you may get banned from the community as well.

Email Groups – Hidden Treasure Troves For Advertising:  Something that has become increasingly popular since the Internet has grown are the email groups that are available through Yahoo, MSN, and other venues.  They are a great way to meet other people who have a common interest, and are very similar to the communities that are available through blogging sites.  There is plenty of diverse subjects and there are communities for just about any subject.  These groups can be a great place for people who have a blog about the subject and want to share it with other people.  Most of the time when you join a group, you are
encouraged to take a moment and to introduce yourself.  This is a great opportunity to tell people about your blog, but make certain that you don’t overdo it.  Just like with any of the other places you will advertise your blog, you want to make people want to go to your blog. If you are too overbearing, you will turn people off.  If your blog covers different subjects, you can
advertise it on the other groups that cover those subjects as well. Make certain that your post to the groups is interesting and that you let people know what it is that your blog is about. There’s nothing worse than getting taken to a blog under false pretences.  When people visit your blog, make certain that you thank them for visiting and respond to comments that
they leave.  If they know that you appreciate the time that they
took, they are more likely to come back again.

The power of being seen is the up most importance and blogging is one the best ways you can make sure others know of you, don’t let it pass you by.www.theonlinenbiznetwork.com, www.marinisgifts.com, www.onlinenichenetwork.com

Author Info: Douglas Smith has been involved with selling online since 2001 and creator of numerous websites along with being an ebay powerseller.

Akismet

This plugin actually comes standard with your WordPress installation. You will have to get a WordPress.com API key to make it work, but after you do it’s pure bliss. This will help keep spam comments away automatically! Akismet is smart enough to put suspected spam into a separate folder, and it even learns from you as you go. You should always activate this plugin for the best results with your blog. It saves you a ton of time too!

Related Posts

Linking to different pages in your blog from every page is a great search engine optimization
tactic. The problem with blogs is that it can be so hard to dig through old posts that are related and manually link them in your new post. Related posts solves that problem! This will automatically insert some relevant posts for your blog. It’s very hands-off and very effective. Both visitors and search engines love this plugin.

All in One SEO Pack

Once again, optimizing your site for the search engines is going to be one of the best ways you can make money with your blog. The higher you rank, the more traffic you recieve. The more traffic you receive, the more money you make! The All In One SEO pack makes your life easier because it allows you to specify the title, description (that will show up in the search engines), and keywords.

WordPress Database Backup

Backing up your blog is crucial if you value your business. You never know what could happen to your server, and it would be awfully devastating to lose everything. You can easily back everything up by pressing a few simple buttons with this effective and very useful plugin.

Top Commentators

This plugin is greatly effective and it encourages a lot of interaction on your blog. It lists the people who have the most comments within your blog. They love this because they get the extra exposure. You love it because people really get into posting to try and be at the top. It also gives social proof. When people visit a blog for the first time they are more likely to stick around if there are clearly other people there who value your content. The fact that they can see others participating is a great thing.

There are an incredible number of different plugins out there that are ready for you to use. Install these essentials and you’ll be well-prepared to become the great blogger you’re going to become.

Author Info: www.turnblogstocash.com